A research team has unveiled the cause and molecular mechanism of chronic brain inflammation that results in repetitive behavioral disorders. The research team demonstrated that an inflammatory response by immune cells in the brain induces overactivity in certain receptors, which may, in turn, lead to the meaningless repetitive behaviors observed in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The research involved mice with a mutated NLRP3 gene. This gene mutation stimulates a chronic inflammatory response by immune cells in the brain that are called microglia. Prolonged inflammation overactivates N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors, which are important for excitatory...